Knowledge of how young people learn within the social context of the class-
room requires an understanding both of general developmental progression and of
individual differences in learning, shaped by pupils’increasingly diverse cultural
backgounds. This calls for highly developed diagnostic abilities, informed by an
appreciation of what young people have learned previously (and are continuing to
learn outside school).
Content knowledge—an understanding of what is to be taught—is obviously
essential, but insufficient. Teachers also require a developed awareness of the
underlying concepts and organisational structures within a particular subject domain,
and of the most effective steps by which knowledge within that domain may be built.
Such pedagogical content knowledge encompasses not only clearly framed,
well-justified goals and models of progression, but also familiarity with those mis-
conceptions that often prevent pupils from developing more powerful ideas.
The range of teaching strategies that beginners need to master are concerned with
the processes of‘motivating and organizing students’work in settings that provide
access to challenging content and frequent assessments of their progress, coupled
with feedback and opportunities to revise and improve (Bransford et al. 2005 , p. 35).
Effective classroom management is obviously essential, but this extends far beyond
rules for classroom conduct and procedures to deal with misbehaviour; it draws, for
example, on motivation theory and the management of groups to create a psycho-
logically safe and productive learning environment. Beyond this general repertoire
of strategies, teachers need a storehouse of representations and analogies for
teaching specific topics. To judge their effectiveness, they need a similar range of
formative assessment strategies, allowing them to tap into pupils’current thinking
and levels of understanding, and to adapt their teaching accordingly.
Moreover, the fact that teaching and learning are social processes involving a
diverse range of individuals means there is a constant interplay between the dif-
ferent knowledge bases on which teachers need to draw. Teachers have to juggle
the immediate and longer term needs of up to 30 individuals who are interacting
(with the teacher and with each other) in complex ways. Doyle famously
summarised these challenges in terms of beginning teachers’encounters with the
‘multi-dimensionality, simultaneity and unpredictability’of the classroom. It is not
just the need to deal with numerous things at once; the range of different purposes
being served and the variety of events and processes are‘not all necessarily related
or even compatible’(Doyle 1977 , p. 52). Indeed, Kennedy ( 2005 ), examining
experienced teachers’ways of thinking, concludes that teachers are actually trying
to address no fewer than six different, competing concerns, often simultaneously:
- covering desirable content;
- fostering student learning;
- increasing students’willingness to participate;
- maintaining lesson momentum;
- creating a civil classroom community; and
- attending to their own cognitive and emotional needs.
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